Ivan: One year ago today

I was in Southern Alabama right after Ivan hit there; a lot of areas hit very hard! With no dunes to offer protection, Dauphin Island took a terrible beating! Here's a couple of photos taken on Sep 17, 2004. The photo of the sand blown across the beach road (our equivalent of 30-A) looks like our streets in the Midwest after a January snowstorm! Many of the homes were destroyed; many fell into the water. Beach homes that once had homes blocking part of their view of the gulf became "beachfront property" in the blink of an eye. Of course, I'd be sweating it if I owned one of them, because chances are they may be next!

Of course, worse yet was the devestation in many other areas of southern Alabama...many poor towns such as Atmore, Brewton....the scene reminded me a bit of New Orleans today. So many poor folks who had nothing to begin with...then Ivan hit and left them with nothing. Taking a drive through these towns a few days after Ivan made me so greatful for all that I have, and made me want to reach out to these people.....watching them stand in lines for assistance was heartbreaking. I can only begin to imagine what the victims of Katrina are going through.

Wow bsmart...never thought I'd forget this date. I found this board a couple of days before Ivan hit, as I am sure many of us did. I had to travel up to Columbia, MO for Parents Weekend during this storm and luckily found the computer room at the hotel and spent every moment possible glued to Kurt, SJ and all the others I now know as my fellow SoWal brothers and sisters! I remember the feeling when the locals lost their power and the others on the board were so concerned about them and also so helpful to one another. God Bless America and SoWal.com!

On this date last year, as the remnants of Ivan moved into northern AL, many supercell thunderstorms developed in middle and north GA, and pinwheeled around all afternoon. At the time I was in class at UGA, and a tornado warning came out for Athens-Clarke County. The room I was in had no windows, I did not know anything was going on until a person came into the classroom and told us that there was a tornado warning, and we needed to move to the basement of the building fast. So we went, and I caught a glimpse of the storm out the window as we headed down three flights of stairs. It was dark as night outside when it was 2:30 in the afternoon. I love storms, but this one kind of caused my adrenaline to start pumping. About 100 people in all, we ended up staying in this basement for well over an hour, because a second storm moved into the area and also prompted a tornado warning. All in all, I was upset that I was stuck in a basement with no windows, unable to see what was going on outside.

Ivan was my first hurricane since owning in South Walton. I feel lucky that I remember what the beaches look like for about a year before Ivan. They were indeed amazing (and still are but in a different way). I was glued to the TV for days, as if watching tV would make any difference. There was nothing I could do. But I did fly down to the cottages a few days after Ivan. I was relieved our places were fine, and I patched and painted all the window frames after having had them boarded up (can't decide whether I'll do it again this year, since it may end up being a yearly activity and I'm not sure it's worth it). The bushes were "burned" but otherwise OK. I drove around and checked people's property (who couldn't be there and asked me to check) and took photos of people's property so they could put their minds at ease. I was quite taken by the good will along 30A, and Criolla's free picnic for guests, especially the service workers who worked so hard to get services back quickly. I did my best to support the local restaurants by eating out becaue they lost much of their fall business. I LOVED the shells on the beach -- I have them here in Michigan and can look at them as I type this. They were plentiful and beautiful.

Mostly, I remember how relieved I was to see the beach. I had read on this board that "the beach at Seacrest is gone". Now, I took that literally and expected to see only water and no beach at all to walk on. I waited a few days after getting to SoWal, and then took a walk to our beach access (with a glass of wine). As damaged as it was, I was overjoyed (I started to cry) to see that we indeed still had a beach! I really thought I'd just see cliffs and water. What a relief. So, I guess when people say "the beach is gone", they must mean "top top layer of fluffy white sand is gone."

Wow! I'll never forget how sad we were after boarding up. It was so dark and creepy inside the house. When we drove away, we cried because we had worked so hard all of our lives to be able to afford (well, sort of - LOL) a home in this paradise, and we didn't know if we'd ever see our home again.

My memory is the same stressful feeling that I have during all of these other storms. They all run together. Tonight while sitting under the Moon, I was talking to RiverOtter and could not remember "Katrina's" name. To me the names just get jumbled in with other generic info, much like trying to recall a particular football play from a particular game. The die-hard fans seem to recall each play like the back of their hand after watching it a few times on VHS. I cannot even recall who played who last week.

I stayed with Jim Cantore on TV here in Osage Beach MO all night long and in the morning or early afternoon when Kurt came back on my computer I cried because I knew our places were still standing! We were able to come the first of October and my daughter-in-law walked with me to where this dog statue was on Seagrove Beach down from our condos and once again I cried. I had this need to touch this crazy dog statue. It signified in some crazy way that we had survived and my middle grandson, who had never seen the beach did not even know that something so horrendous had happened. He just saw the wonderful beach, he did not know the sand was supposed to be fluffy soft and white. (He did get to experience that in June! Thank YOU GOD!) No matter the prices on 30A, or what we have gained or lost, so much of us is there!

My memory is the same stressful feeling that I have during all of these other storms. They all run together. Tonight while sitting under the Moon, I was talking to RiverOtter and could not remember "Katrina's" name. To me the names just get jumbled in with other generic info, much like trying to recall a particular football play from a particular game. The die-hard fans seem to recall each play like the back of their hand after watching it a few times on VHS. I cannot even recall who played who last week.

Alabama played Southern Miss and won!

We had quite a bit of damage from Ivan. We had roof repairs that were being done but had not been finished when the storm hit. In addition, someone (maybe those working on our house?) left the french doors improperly secured on the third floor, and they blew open. Water was EVERYWHERE. We had about 27K worth of damage, and that was just for cleanup, flooring, drywall, doors, etc. And it took three months to repair. It took four months for an adjuster to even come see us! Citizens was a nightmare to deal with. I'm just so, so glad it was a second home and not our primary residence.

The year that has passed since Ivan has been about the most stress-filled 12 months of my life, for a ton of reasons, and even though it's not logical I'm hoping this anniversary means things are going to settle down a bit for us. Because I can point directly to Ivan as the beginning.

We had quite a bit of damage from Ivan. We had roof repairs that were being done but had not been finished when the storm hit. In addition, someone (maybe those working on our house?) left the french doors improperly secured on the third floor, and they blew open. Water was EVERYWHERE. We had about 27K worth of damage, and that was just for cleanup, flooring, drywall, doors, etc. And it took three months to repair. It took four months for an adjuster to even come see us! Citizens was a nightmare to deal with. I'm just so, so glad it was a second home and not our primary residence.

The year that has passed since Ivan has been about the most stress-filled 12 months of my life, for a ton of reasons, and even though it's not logical I'm hoping this anniversary means things are going to settle down a bit for us. Because I can point directly to Ivan as the beginning.

Oh, I'm so sorry you had so much damage. :( I feel blessed.

BTW I have a photo of that dog on Seagrove Beach. It was so strange how it ended up facing the Gulf. Someone was taking a photo of it, so I thought it was his dog. I thought that it was such a good dog because it obeyed the "stay" command for so long. Then when the photographer left, it STILL stayed and stayed. That's when I realized it was a statue. It was funny how someone put a bandana on it and people left flowers and dog toys for it.

One year ago today? Wow, it feels like tons of years since we lost everything in our brand new trailer home in PCB (ok, it was from the tornados, not the eyewall, but everything was still gone and without Ivan there would not have been any tornados, etc., etc.). We ran all the way through Georgia into Tennessee and back down through Alabama. I hooked up with a friend that flies out of Tyndall and we stayed down there for a few days and he got me on a helicopter for an overflight. It's funny, you know, seeing your stuff all spread out on the ground like that and recognising it, but still trying to decide whether it was yours or not. Must be denial. The beds from the slut motel that was closer toward the beach had landed on top of our stuff so most of it wasn't as ruined by rain as some. I did find the huge staghorn coral piece, amazingly still attached to the wooden stand, that I bought way back in the 60's from the now-closed Alan Davis Shell Shop in Pensacola and that was truly good since it can't be harvested anymore, and a few other things I had saved from my childhood, such as my shell collection that I had put into one of those 'fill it yourself' lamps (lamp didn't work but that wasn't the point), and a pair of naval style bookends. All were wet through, and had some new 'character lines', but were salvageable. Everything else was just 'stuff', chattel, my 'many goats'. Minimalism is great as you just don't have as many 'many goats' to escape or lose. The big boat did just fine (in the trench with 5 anchors on it) and the other 2 were illegally parked down at Tyndall in a hangar! My friend could have gotten in terrible trouble for that but they were fine and nothing happened and he got a series of fine steak dinners (prime rib a jou!) for danger pay. We however got nothing from the government, so when the insurance finally paid off we decided to get a real trailer that could move and keep it somewhere as our 'vacation home' and start over again in Alabama. I started at Auburn for my Masters and subsequently found this board, changed jobs and eventually changed Thesis and today it is now been one year. Again, Wow!

The tilapia grew almost a whole inch while all the debris was in the ponds - they will apparently eat anything in front of them regardless, and can also apparently digest it ok. South American(?) fish must have a very varied diet! USDA man came and several reliable witnesses reported that he checked their poo (I was apparently away moving the camper and missed this visual treat!) and he pronounced them clean, so at least we'll have fish for dinner and a paycheck. Yay!


Behold the humble Tilapia - tastes like Chicken and breeds like Rabbits!

We were able to come the first of October and my daughter-in-law walked with me to where this dog statue was on Seagrove Beach down from our condos and once again I cried. I had this need to touch this crazy dog statue.

I heard about the dog statue...some friends of ours came down to our place the first week of October last year and took a picture of it. It scared the heck out of them when they first saw it, because it looked so real!

Anyone have any idea what happened to it? :idontno:

Ivan was the first hurricane to make landfall after we purchased our house. The old Butler cottage (of the same name) that stood on the land before was completely washed away by Opal, so we feared the worst. All we had of the old original Conch Out was the handpainted sign. When Ivan was Category 5 and headed for us, I told my husband to expect no house standing by the next morning. Before the storm hooked east, I had a family member retrieve a few momentos from the house---mostly pictures, one painting, and a little seashell chest that I love. Funny the things one wants to save when contemplating destruction. We were reminded that it's all just "stuff." The saddest thing was the thought of the devastation to the beaches and wildlife, knowing how long the recovery takes.

We did have some water damage on our ground floor, which was a cleanup job and a good excuse to go ahead with replacing carpet with stone tile on the ground floor. On the +++ side, we had the water extraction people on-the-scene immediately, the insurance adjustor was out there within days of our initial telephone call (thank you William West at Waterfield & Associates---you're the BEST), and we had a FEMA check for full claim before the charges came through on our card. We also found out how well built the house is and have now had two demonstrations of how the new building codes work in these storms.

Things could have been so much worse on many levels. We were very fortunate with Ivan and the aftermath. Sometimes the system does work and it did for us with Ivan. (Not that we want a repeat performance, mind you.)

I heard about the dog statue...some friends of ours came down to our place the first week of October last year and took a picture of it. It scared the heck out of them when they first saw it, because it looked so real!

Anyone have any idea what happened to it? :idontno:

It's on top of what little is left of the walkover at Seawatch Drive.

It's on top of what little is left of the walkover at Seawatch Drive.

Glad to hear the dog is still "alive and well" I think we're going to try to come down next weekend.....I'll be on the lookout for the little guy. Thanks for the info! 😀

There is a wonderful new dog up on the beach walkover. But the dog that went through Ivan was down on the beach in front of the walkover in June. I am also going back in October so I will check on that crazy dog!

Pre Ivan




Post Ivan

Pre Ivan
Post Ivan

There's the dog, and there's our gorgeous cypress walkover in the background that has cost us about $20,000 in the past year-and-a-half. The cypress part got ripped out by Dennis. We rebuilt a simple walkover after Dennis and again after Katrina. Why do anything fancy when it has been ripped up 4 times in less than a year by hurricanes?

Once again, thank you Kurt. How blessed is Beach Runner to have such a wonderful home on the gulf!